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SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF “THE CONJURING” MOVIE POSTER

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Ni Luh Putu Juliantari

English Department Non Regular Program Faculty of Letters and Culture

Udayana University

Abstrak

Jurnal ini difokuskan pada analisis tanda, baik tanda-tanda verbal maupun visual
yang diemukan dalam beberapa iklan poster film yang berjudul “The Conjuring”.
Analisis ini juga bertujuan untuk mengetahui makna yang ditimbulkan oleh tanda-tanda
semiotic dalam iklan poster tersebut. Data dalam analisis ini diambil dari tiga poster
“The Conjuring” yang ditemukan di sebuah situs internet yaitu bersumber dari
http/moviepostercollectors.com. Jurnal ini dianalisis mengunakan beberapa teori, yaitu
teori mengenai tanda yang diungkapkan oleh Saussure (1974), dan juga menggunakan
beberapa teori pendukung seperti teori Verbal and Visual Aspect yang dikemukakan oleh
Dyer (1986) yang digunakan untuk menganalisis tanda-tanda verbal dan visual poster
dalam jurnal ini,. Theory of Colour Term yang dibuat oleh Wierzbicka (1996) juga
digunakan untuk menganalisis makna yang trekandung dalam warna-warna yang muncul
di dalam iklan poster. Jurnal ini membahas tanda-tanda verbal yang ditemukan dalam
poster yang trdiri dari: judul, sub judul, font size, situs internet, pembuat film, logo
institusi dan tanggal dirilisnya film. Dan tanda-tanda visual dianalisis dalam bentuk:
gambar, warna, posisi, dan latar belakang dari poster tersebut. Tanda-tanda verbal dan
visual didalam jurnal ini menunjukan jenis film yang dianalisis, yaitu mengnenai film
horror dan situasi yang buruk yang terjadi di dalam cerita film tersebut beberapa tahun
yang lalu.

Kata kunci: Semiotik, tanda, poster film

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1. Background of the study

Advertising is any kind of media used to inform people about something

important, which is normally intended to inform people to do something or buying
a certain product. One of the division of advertising media is “Movie Poster”.
Movie poster is still an incredibly important part of film’s marketing technique.
The aim of a movie poster is to gain interest in a movie, an effective way to
distribute a movie in a wider range of locations, and movie poster can also give
us important information about the production context of the movie. There are
different forms of language used in advertisement. According to Ogilvy, (1988) in
his book Confession of an Advertising Man, the language is usually informal, use
simple and short sentences and interactive words, because the purpose of
advertising language is to persuade the audience to do something and make the
audience easier to understand the message of the advertisement.

This study analyzed the semiotic signs used in movie poster advertisement
using semiotic theories. Semiotic study can analyze not only written and spoken
language but can also analyze visual element of the advertisement. The focuse of
this study is to analyze the semiotic signs and the messages conveyed by verbal
and visual signs, especially in “The Conjuring” Movie Poster, which has a very
amazing story and based on the true events. The Conjuring movie poster also has
much semiotic signs which can be analyzed in this study, which should know the
meaning of the semiotic signs in this poster such as the meaning of colour, the
verbal and visual aspect, etc.

By analyzing the movie poster, this study can give a better

understanding of the elements that effectively grab the attention of movie
goers and sell the movie story even before viewers see it for themselves.
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2. Problem of the study

Based on the background above, there are several problems arising from
this study, those are:

1. What semiotic signs are found in “The Conjuring” movie posters?

2. What messages are conveyed by verbal and visual sign in “The Conjuring”
movie poster?

3. Aims of the study

Specifically, the aims of this study can be formulated as follows:
1. To identify the semiotic signs which contain in “The Conjuring” movie `
poster.
2. To find out the messages conveyed by verbal and visual sign in “The
Conjuring” movie poster.

4. Research Method
The data in this study waere taken from a poster advertisement entitled “The
Conjuring”. It was published by the Movie Poster Collectors on
http:/moviepostercollectors.com which were published in March 2013. The
method used in collecting data in this study was library research. The data
collected through some steps. The first step was by downloading the
advertisement from the sites on the internet, second by observing the visual
messages from the advertisement such as colour, shape, etc. Third, by observing
the verbal message which was applied on the text on the poster advertisement.
The collected data were analyzed descriptively and qualitatively based on the
theory of semiotics. The verbal and visual signs in the advertisement were
analyzed based on the Dyer’s concepts (1986), and the semiotic theory by
Saussure (1974) was used to analyze the signified and signifier of signs in this
poster advertisement. To analyze the meaning of colour term, the theory proposed
by Anna Wierzbicka (1996) was used.
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5. Analysis

The analysis is focused on the verbal and visual signs and the messages
imply by the signs on the movie poster advertisement which is analyz e using
theory proposed by Dyer (1986), and also Saussure (1974), Wierzbicka (1996) as
the supporting theory to analyze this study.

5.1 Verbal Aspects Analysis

“FROM THE DIRECTOR OF SAW AND INSIDIOUS” : verbal sign

Messages: The masthead of the poster, informs people about who directed the
film and the other films that the director has directed. This film was
directed by Australian director James Wan, a famous director who was
also directed some success horror films, such as: Saw and Insidious.
This is done because if people have seen one of the director has
directed and enjoy it then they may be encourage to watched The
Conjuring because the same director had directed it.

. “THE CONJURING” : verbal sign

Messages: The title of the poster. The text with capital letter , bold and clear one
in this poster signified is the main tittle and obviously want to be the
main focus of the poster designs, making the title of the poster stand
out and capture the audience attention showing them what the film
actually is.

“JULY 19” : verbal sign

Messages: informs people about the release date of the film and when they can
expect to be able to watch the film.

“COMING SOON” : Verbal sign

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’Messages: the poster informs people if the poster is obviously a teaser poster as
there is no specific release date, so they will attracted to the poster and
then they will seek the exact release date online or at the cinema.

“NEW LINE CINEMA and WARNER BROS PICTURES” : verbal sign

Messages: informs people about the distributor of the film. The font text in this
part is the smaller one than the other texts because it is not to important
for the people, it is not specifically aimed to the people and not vital
for them to know about it.

5.2 Visual Aspect Analysis

Beside the verbal aspect, the visual aspect in this poster is also analyze, the
visual aspects of posters consist of the colour, shape, position, background.

Colour

There are several colour that used in this poster, such as: brown, black,
green, white, grey, red and orange. The messages conveyed by the colours in the
three poster according to Wierzbica (1996) are:
Brown signified dull and lack of humor, black signified death, darkness,
mysterious, hidden, fearful, energy of unknown. White signifed kindness, virgin,
morning, cold, isolating, deatg, empty, supernatural power. Grey signified
mysterious, cloudy, sadness, loneliness, isolation. Red, signified blood, passion,
lust, danger. Green signified, growth, nature, relaxing colour. Orange signified,
warmth, light

Shape:
The shape in the first poster is the big tree in the yard with a rope hanging
down on the tree with a shadow of a man under the tree signified the film could be
mystery for the people when they looked out the poster, they suddenly want to
know why, when, what, how actually it, it also become the target markting to sell
the movie.
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In the second poster is someone sit in the rocking chair with white long
dress and also lap a doll which is fill with blood, signified that the girls was
isolated in the room and connoted the people want to stay away from her, the
rocking char connotes sothing antique, the face of the doll facing to us means the
supernatural power, the doll seems like have to be moved by itself.

And in the third poster the position is in the cellar in the farm house,
signifed the woman brings the light of the match with open mouth and bugling
eyes connotes that she tries to get some light in the darkness room, and also to
help her see around the room.

Background
The background in the first object is an old house inform the people about
where the location of the movie set. In the second poster is the dirty and dingy
room with blood mark around the floor, that gives the sense that its room very
hard, scary, isolation and unwelcoming room. For the last one, the backround is
the dark room because there is no light in this room.

6. Conclution

Based on the foregoing analysis poster advertisement entitled “The

Conjuring” movie poster,There were two aspects which formulated in this poster.
They are verbal and visual. The verbal aspects reffered to verbal signs, which are
devided into several categories, such as: the masthead described the audience that
the film is directed by the famous director, the title inform the audience that the
conjuring meant as the supernatural power or black magic, the conjuring movie
based on the true story which rare found in the other movie story, the realease date
informed the audience when they could watch the movie, internet website helped
them regarding information about the movie. From the visual aspect we
understood the genre of the movie was horror and happened few years ago.There
were also analysis about messages which were carried by the text and picture of
the posters, because it is the most vivid information that people needed.The non
verbal aspect which reffered to visual aspects were devided into several
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categories, consist of: colour, shape, sign, background. The three movie poster
implied message especially for the verbal and visual aspects. The movie poster
used the semiotical signs by both verbal and visual aspects which have some
important purposes, suh as: to give some information for people about signs in
order to know the messages of signs in the posters.

7. Bibliography

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Frans, Matthews. 2010. Textual Analysis Film Poster. London.

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